I don't read books for pleasure, but in desperation.

I have a very basic notion of the structure the book might have - that's mostly it. The rest is luck and happenstance.

I have a different purpose in writing each novel. Some of them seem more similar than others, but the purposes are always different.

I'm an elephant today. I will need to have lots of room and also a bowl of water on the floor.

It is at the heart of our human enterprise, that is to say, at the heart of society, to allow consensus a power it ought not to have.

A beginning idea for a book might be: a boy emerges from a hole in the ground. He enters a house. The book will take place in the first ten minutes following his arrival.

Three things are required of you: the wishes you made when you first knew the breadth of this life; the contract you signed when you decided your wishes were not true or possible; and the exacting of the punishment you agreed to when you knew you would break the contract of your life.